Oh my lamb!!! You have done a great job, Santi, with your gardens I love it all. The space is beautiful. Is the precious plant in the 6th & 7th photos from the bottom up a type of Gaura maybe? Its awesome. I love your Geraniums. What's your secret to growing them? I can't. I think because it gets so humid here in south MS. I have a pale/clear pink one that I bought in a mixed basket this spring that I put in a half whiskey barrel and just about lost during the hottest part of the summer. I cut it back hard and it's looking better and getting new blooms since it's cooled off...just in time to freeze and be lost. I may dig and pot it up and put it in the garage for winter. Thanks for sharing, Leslie

It just seems more efficient, both in time, money, and wear and tear on our bodies to rent a smaller uhaul to take what we'll need for 6 months to the country, and let movers come in and take everything else to climate controlled storage. ^^^^ THIS! I'd get a working dishwasher installed, have a plumber install a laundry hookup, and move the bare essentials, remembering that construction will probably take longer than planned ... bring your warm clothes. He thinks we can just make multple trips using my SUV, his truck and atv trailer, and I think not. Been there, done that and it SUCKED! We did it of necessity, and because we had a longer timeline for the move, but if I were in your position I would pack for the construction period and have the rest stay in storage. And be sure to PURGE during this time ... nothing goes to storage that doesn't have a future in your new house. Make charities HAPPY.

I'm in NYC also, I adore climbers and I have a mandevilla, a cardinal climber, a clematis, a passiflora and 3 climbing roses. As long as you have sufficient sunlight (6+ hours), water diligently (containers dry faster than in ground planting), and fertilize (weakly and weekly), all of the above will thrive for you. Unhappy plants attract bugs and are less likely to fight them off. All the aggressive climbers will need heavy feeding to grow and flower abundantly.

It was 110° here yesterday, and so we took a drive into the mountains, and in less than an hour, the temperature was 30° cooler. We have 10% humidity here, and so it does not feel all that bad, but the pool has been 93° lately, and so when we go in, it still feels a bit warm. With a breeze, it is okay. I grew up in central Texas, and I hated the summers there (and the ones in Houston the most), but I loved the winters because I loved wearing sweaters. However, I could only wear them in the mornings on most winter days (if at all), and on the coldest days, the schools would close, due to lack of the ability to heat. After living in San Francisco for 12 years (where it is always cold), I got over my love of wearing sweaters. I found beach weather in Los Angeles to be the best to my liking, but it's not hot enough for swimming (without a wetsuit), and so we bought a second house in the Palm Springs are where we have a pool and can swim in it all year, although we have to heat it in the winter.